Banff Scramble Comp

     Banff comp, scramble format. Felt great and was just trying to onsight as many routes/ boulders as possible. After warming up I began by doing 28 by watching Kyle and Matt onsight/ flash it. Next I think that I tried 32 and fell near the beginning because I messed up the sequence, so I drifted over to the other side of the gym where I tied into number 29, which was a stemmy sort of route, and I successfully onsighted it. Beside that there was 36 and I had seen a couple of the boys that were much stronger then me struggling with the start because they didn't have the sequence correctly figured out and so on my third try I was able to balance my way around to the next obstacle, which was a big blue feature, sort of in the shape of a slice of an orange just glued to the wall with the peel facing down. There I couldn't figure out how to  get around it so I struggled for a couple minutes, getting pumped before finally falling off the wall. When I came down Eva told me that I need to like lean over and do sort of a muscle up and sticking my foot underneath me. That worked, therefore I got over it and ended up pressing into the small roof. There was now an orange sloper that I could barely hold onto (other people were holding it with two  hands and trying to rock over to the next crimp. I on the other hand could not possibly, do that so I shifted as far as I could to the left under the overhang and then placed my foot onto a feature, with my right hand on the really bad orange sloper, where I then released my left and was able to grab the quite positive crimp. At that point I was pumped and so I couldn't do the next move statically therefore I fell off and had to get some more problems because I only had 2.

     So I put my card into the pile for 32 (which was long giving me a bit of time to rest) and climbed it after 4 tries. Now I was beginning to run out of time and if I remember correctly then 2 hours had passed and I only had 3 routes done. So I found 30 which seemed like my best bet for another high number because of the technical aspect to it, and gave it a shot. Fortunately for me I onsighted it. Therefore I only had to move another pile over to one of the sort of headwalls where there was 27.

     Apparently there were two piles and I was in the wrong one and when my  turn came then I had to try number 35 because it was

a) a boulder

b) other people were falling off of the last move but seemed to be getting there alright, therefore if I
could stick the last move then I would be good to go

     So as I tried it I got almost to the part where you stand on two foot hold with relatively no hand holds and have to jump to the finish, but unfortunately, I forgot about this really big feature and so I got super pumped before I could try that move.

     As soon as I got off I put my card into the right pile for 27 and got ready to climb it. It looked really easy from the bottom and so I didn't sequence properly. I can't recall if there were fifteen minutes left before or after I climbed this one but it was quite nerve racking because I still needed 3 routes in.

     Everything up to the lip of the overhang was quite easy, and so I was just climbing fluidly then I realized that I had messed up my sequence about two moves from the finish, and I could go back  because I was getting pumped. So I locked of my right hand (which was a jug) and tried reaching for the finish which was two far away. At this point I was sure that I was screwed and was going to fall off of the wall, so I pushed one more time rocking over my foot and committing to the move. and just barely caught the finish hold which was a mini-jug with my left hand.

     At that point I was really happy because I still had a chance for doing good. Therefore next because I usually save the easiest or best for last I quickly did 25 and 24. At this point there were seven minutes left and I had a choice for trying to get problem number 26 or 35 to knock off 24. The line up for 26 was three people long and as it was a lead route, then I didn't think that I would get a shot at it before the time would be up so I went over to 35. It  was a short boulder therefore it didn't require that much energy.

     My turn came and as I started climbing then the announcer said that there were 10 seconds left. I quickly climbed to the no hands rest area and stood there looking at the hold. Another person who was in a hurry to climb a lead routes was in my way so I had to wait a couple seconds before they were gone. Looking at the hold in those moments was something special. Knowing that you only had one shot and in that moment you could gain all or nothing. I recall telling myself that the most important part was going to be to have the right amount of body tension.

     So I bunched my muscles and jumped, trying to lead my body and my chest towards the final hold and clasping it with my left from the left side and right from the other to control my swing. As I reached the high point of the pendulum then I knew that I had stuck the hold as came back down.
That comp was the funnest climbing comp that I had ever been to, full of onsights, close calls, and great climbing.

I ended up third with the following seven routes:
35, 32, 30, 29, 28, 27, 25

It sucked that parents weren't allowed because now I have no pictures to show.

Tour De Bloc: Canmore Elevation Place

     Began with a rusty warm up and then as soon as the music/comp started (I can't remember if they began the morning scramble like that) then I was in line for 15/25 (maybe both) which I waited for and then did. Disappointed by the length of the series of moves I proceeded on to trying 28 which looked reasonably easy and quite doable, a series of white holds and blocky slopers where you pushed up with your left hand at the end to finish.

     After nailing that with ease I wanted to do a problem where I would move very dynamically, because I still was feeling slightly stiff and not willing to throw myself for a hold in thin air yet. I remembered about 29 which was back beside 15 and headed there. A red problem with a big move to the first hold from the start holds, thinking it might have to be a dyno I approached it, but as I stuck a dynamic dead point I was slightly disappointed by the distance of the move. Continueing there was only one move where I had to try slightly over a sloper and otherwise it was easy.

     Next I embarked on a series of attempts for #40 a big orange problem beginning with a dyno and continuing into a reach over to two big pinches pointing towards each other, each roughly the size of my forearm from my fingers to my elbow, and then standing on the top of a large foot hold, you had to hold a blocky, slopey undercling with your right hand and one of the pinches with your left again as and undercling, and as you stood with your right foot on the top of the big foot hold, then you were close enough to the finish to bounce, then release the holds with your hands and embrace the final hold with cupped fingers. After a number of attempts where I first couldn't get the dyno, and then was doing the finish wrong, I finally stuck the problem, with " one down, five to go".

     I continued my search for high 30's in order to get a good base of problems from where I could work some of the harder ones. One area had 38, 37, 36, 35 all within a 7m range of each other and so to there my journey continued. Beginning with 38, a super juggy giveaway I embarrassingly had troubles with the two hanging balls, as I missed my first try in getting the second, but getting my second try I muscled up to the jugs from where it was then an easy finish. Next I headed to the flat/inclined wall where 37 and 35 resided.

     Beginning with 35 I made it quite far in a painstaking amount of time until I finally messed up my foot match sadly and fell. With another attempt I was able to get to the last two holds, but was in a very bad position and unfortunately was off balance, with my left foot to my left and my two hands to my right I was arched and had to more or less do a very good foot match that if I messed up would morph into a dynamic swing. Of course, I messed up and deemed it a loss of my time as there were higher points that I could be getting with less effort. Same with 37, I assumed that it was just harder than 35 so I wouldn't even try it.

     Behind me there was 36 which was an easy flash due to an unfortunate sequence break that traced a completely different line than intended to the finish from the start. Now having three out of four done, I left the area and continued the hunt for more giveaways of high points.

     Stumbling upon Dylan trying 39, and seeing the possibility of it, I chalked up and gave it a go. Beginning as a crunched series of undercling mini-jugs, you traversed the head wall until you came to one that was  facing away from you to the side and was very positive. From here I had to match my feet to get a crimp with my left hand, match feet again to be able to step up onto another hold so that I could move to another crimp that was also aligned perpendicularly to the ground. And finally repeating the process of stepping up onto the positive side pull, then getting hold of another sort of perpendicularly aligned crimp, leading into heel hooking the first crimp on the left so that you could bump your left hand up to the top of the last hold before the finish, I completed the problem by matching my left foot with my right and stepping up to a foothold so that I could power to the finish. All in all the entire process took multiple attempts to get to that point and finally the technique to the last move was very bad. Nevertheless I stuck it and got the points.

     All that I needed now was two hard problems and I was finished. I began by eyeballing 49 a big blue in the overhanging wall beginning with a dyno, then a mantle, and finally a sort of dead point to a very, very small hold, and after contemplating the probability of me sticking the dead point I took my sheet out from under the pile and went over to try 48. 48 was a giveaway, it was super easy, a rock over onto a VERY big foothold on which you could tap dance or have a picnic, then (in my method) you stood up to catch a curved crimpy side pull facing to the left right at the top with your right hand, from where I would re-adjust my right foot so that I could rock over it better. Then I would sink down and catch the hold to my right which had little dips in it on the top with my right hand and then I would catch curved side pull on the left side with my left. With these I would then stand back up and match my feet, then sink back down in order to match my hands on the sloper with the dips. The next move was just with a little float, getting to  the next sloper which was super positive if you cupped both of the sides with your hands. Once there, you cut your feet to bring the left onto the sloper with the dips on it, and then you would (theoretically) push up and get a very big, positive and sort of inverted undercling pinch with your left. and if you were weak like me, then match it a bit higher up with your right before finally getting a super-good knee bar where you would lean back and tap the finish hold with both hands. So, that was the sequence, back to the comp, I was doing the start wrong so I fell off immediately and seeing 46 looking a lot easy, nesting the biggest jug of the comp as the second hold, with a nearly non-existent line up, counting the limited progress that I had made up to that point on 48, all together swayed me over to try it.

     It was a funny one, in some aspects of it. With a whopping four holds including the biggest, flattest plastic foot hold that you could think of, the most juggy two pronged jug that one could find on the internet, another jug, and finally a foothold so small, yet with quite a positive side to it, it would probably be used for those 5,14d/15a finals routes at world cups in an overhanging wall. (Dont take my word for that, I've never seen a 5.15 in my life.....yet). Nevertheless sequence goes as:

Step 1: get on BIG foothold. Method a) just do like half a muscle up and slip your foot in somewhere. Method b) right hand on bottom, left hand on left side of the hold, smear with left then place heel as far from the wall as possible on the hold so that you can roll over it with your leg followed by your hips which carry the rest of your body.

Step 2: Jump into the air in the general direction of the two pronged jug which is less than 2m away at roughly a 45 degree angle, with your arm travelling in the general direction of the hold. Now according to laws of probability (that I don't know of) when trying to hit a jug with such a big amount of juggyness, there is a very, very low chance that you can miss it even if you were blind folded with the adequate jumping propulsion.

Step 3: Latch onto the jug with your right hand and swing in the direction that you were travelling in trying to slow down the momentum by pushing against the force with your left hand, while finally reaching weightlessness... and beginning to go in the other direction where you stop/ slow yourself down with your foot. (All components of this step take less than 2 seconds)

Step 4: Repeat step 1 but now over the right side of the 2 pronged jug, also push down with your left foot and keep pressure with your toe on the wall underneath you. Glue yourself to the wall.

Step 5: Place right thumb under finish hold and push, then match.

     After a number of attempts I got this one which turned out to be my high. I tried 48 one more time and didn't get it and was then chased away to 34 to get my sixth problem by the 5min announcement / warning.

     And with a flash the comp ended for me.

     Dylan Abel was able to get 47 which had evaded my attention and had beat  me by 10ish points. Corbin had had a bad day and pretty much DNFed though he is still a very skilled and experienced climber that I will have to train hard to pass, and is overall much better than me. With these factors in count I placed 6th behind Simon, Roche, Matt, Alex, and Dylan. If I would pass Dylan and then place Corbin ahead of me then the result is still 6th place. At this point in time I am steadily here. But I am aiming to pass all of these, Simon, Canadian mens Open, and 5.14s, until 5.15s are at my level.

     Trying these problems after the comp showed me a lot about how easy and possible they are and it is important to go into each one headfirst, with a good plan and the knowledge that you are going to top out. I mustn't be afraid of the intimacy of such high numbers as the forties because that is where the top half of all of my competitors land all of their problems. All that I need now is a tiny bit of progression in areas such as technique, strength and endurance, and I'm as good as set for the next comp to be crushing the moves set up against me all the way to the finishing hold.

Tour De Bloc (Rock Jungle Fitness)

     The second Tour De Bloc competition here in Alberta, had been underway up in Edmonton where keen climbers flocked to the Rock Jungle Fitness Center at 7:30 a.m. to tackle the 50 problems set there as targets which would finally qualify the top 8 male and female climbers from the Youth A, Junior, and Open categories, into the finals where the top competitors would attempt a number of finals problems that would decide the final placing of the athletes.

     In the afternoon, the Youth B and younger aged climbers would compete on the same set that the older athlete had for the previous three hours.

     I unfortunately had to embark on a three and a half hour long journey back home to Calgary, therefore I have limited knowledge of finals which I have already already mostly spoke of, and I wasn't able to finish watching the younger athletes to see how they had done in the end.

    Starting right from the beginning of the day, I woke up with my brother and father in our hotel, had a rather lengthy breakfast, from which we then hurried to climbing wall where we arrived a bit past 7:30 and I headed straight towards a narrow hallway in the back where I began warming up.

     I always believe that it is more beneficial to already be fully warm in order to save time and not have to waste any by climbing the painfully easy boulder problems. Now, as I look back I think that right after you warm up, and the comp begins, it is most beneficial to attempt the problems that are relatively easy for your level and you could already have so that in a worst case scenario, they could count towards the bottom of your top 6, so that you have a backup and a slight buffer. For me as an example, this should probably have been 23 and up, relative to the shape that I was in at this comp. If I was feeling a bit better I might have been climbing low 30's right off the bat. Some other examples based off of average results would be say if your average was 36.55 from a 2193 score, that person might want to begin with 31/2+ definitely in order to get a feel for the types of problems and have a very valid base which could be included as one or some of their top six problems.

     Enough with the lecture and back to my story, I did have a relatively good scope for the level of difficulty my problems should be at, so as soon as the comp started and we began climbing, I intended to get onto one of the high 20's, but seeing a few people that were much stronger than me begin on 12 sort of dampened my spirits, inclining me to take the same path. The area which I had chosen was fantastic due to the number of averagely easy problems that were around my skill level, which included 31, 29, 28, and 27.

     Somewhere in the timeframe after 12, I had stepped a couple meters over to the right and attempted a 27, a grey but very positive route where after the first two moves you were led up a series of relative jugs to where you would then top out. The start hold was a juggy triangular undercling that curve out of the wall like a flattened claw and pointed to the bottom left side of you. After placing my hands on the start and one foot onto one of the oppositional footholds I stepped up and pressed through my feet in order to maintain the negative position, then moving my body weight over to the right, I released my right hand and clasped it around the end of the curved edge of the feature on the far end to the right. The edge could have been described as a spherical bulge protruding from one side, yet with a shallow crater that may have taken up, up to two thirds of the top of the bulge creating a positive edge. After I was locked into this, then I matched my feet and brought one on to another foothold to move into a position where I was creating a pull relative to the positivity of the hold. Next I came into the feature with my left hand right into the part where there was a convenient pinch made from the curves of the mold. As I was now steady in this position (most likely locked off and bent at the elbows, which is bad due to the inefficiency) I continued by hiking up my left foot to the highish foot hold left of the feature. Then I rocked over it, pulling with my right arm, and reaching up with the left to the diagonal, long hold that was tilted at a roughly 2 o'clock angle, where I pinched the bottom of it , then brought my other arm up beside it a bit higher up, resulting in me being able to bring my right foot up onto the feature underneath me that I had just left. Next I continued up into the lower of the super-positive pinches curved outwards from the sides, ( sort of like these two brackets ) ( but with the top being attached to the wall ) which I then pulled myself up with, locked off and reached for the next one. Me, being lazy and all, I think that I had used the side wall then with my feet with which I then topped out. My first problem which would have counted towards the top 6 had been an on-sight.

(Note to self: That was a way too lengthy description for such an insignificant problem... Don't do it again!!)

  I immediately tried out 29 but alas had a faulty sequence and entered the fourth or fifth move incorrectly, ending up with me falling off, retrieving my score card, then scuttling off to the top floor to see what problems lay there.

     As I came up then I saw my coach Knut, attempting 41 which looked slightly hard but yet not impossible therefore I gave it a go. The start was not nice, and I managed by slipping once or twice before I successfully planted my foot into the opposite corner and the then worked my way off of the starting crimp into corner and onto a feature. Ultimately, facing outwards, you had to plant your right foot onto the starting hold, right hand on a relatively good crimp, and then jump off of the feature and catch yourself on the next one with you left hand. Finally bring your left foot up onto the foot hold that was relatively high, then flag with your right behind the left foot and then cross over to another crimp near the finish with your right hand. Then finish. Again I'm not 100% sure that this is all right, I was not able to execute the dynamic jump. I think that Knut got it afterward, I wasn't there.

Moving on, I made my way over to the left side where there was less people and I spotted #34, a very technical problem. I tried it a couple of times, deemed it possible and then moved on, as I had to get some more problems that I actually finished.

Somewhere along the line of wandering I made it back to where I had started, and I committed to some of the problems that I had not finished previously. I figured out and sent problem 29 by coming over into the fin, from there I reached up to the blocky pinch with my left, then sort of pushed myself up with my right and then came into the small horn on the roof with one hand. From there I turned, and then


















All photo credits, to my father, Robert Svoboda.

The Beginning of a New Era starting from a New Set

After beginning my first legitimate set of my bouldering wall, I decided that I want to blog and log my findings, discoveries, stories, and routes throughout my climbing career beginning from this day.